Andreas Acoluthus (16 March 1654, Bernstadt - 4 November 1704, Breslau) was one of the most important orientalists of the 17th century.

He was the son of Johannes Acoluthus, pastor of St. Elisabeth and superintendent of the churches and schools of Breslau. He visited himself the school of St. Elisabeth in Breslau and was in the following taught by August Pfeiffer in Rabbinic, Syrian, Chaldean, Arabic, Ethiopian. He later also learned Mauritanian, Turkish, Coptic, Armenian and Chinese. In 1674 he went to Wittenberg, then Leipzig, where he held private lectures on oriental languages.

By lucky circumstances, he came into possession of an Armenian Bible, so that he was able to publish in 1680 the first Armenian print in Germany, prophet Obadiah with observations.

Acoluthus returned in 1683 to Breslau where he entered the practical religious service. In 1689 he became professor of the Hebrew language at the St. Elisabeth school, one year later he became senior at St. Bernhard.

His studies reached a new zenith when an Arabic manuscript of the Quran with translations into Persian and Turkish was looted during the wars against Turkey. At this time, the Quran was almost unknown in Germany, as the only other known edition in Arabic script was burned by order of the pope. Therefore, Acoluthus decided to publish this book with a Latin translation, a plan which found the goodwill of Frederick III of Saxony. The latter provided Acoluthus with a yearly pension. However, only a partial edition was published. Acoluthus was in the following accepted as a member of the Royal Academy of Sciences in Berlin.

Andreal Acoluthus was the father of Johann Karl Acoluthus von Folgersberg, who has been ennobled by Charles VI.

Publications

• De aquis zelotypiae amaris, 1682
• Specimen alcorani quadrilinguis, 1701

Sources

• Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie - online version (http://mdz2.bib-bvb.de/~adb/)